I can’t believe that it is already March. We only have a few months left before the end of the school year. I still can’t get over how much growth in every child that I have seen since the beginning of the year. I continuously feel grateful to be their teacher.
In February we started our unit on the Arctic region and this month we are finishing it up. We have discussed what animals live in the Arctic and discovered that some change the color of their fur like the Arctic fox, Arctic hare and Arctic wolf to blend in during the winter and summer seasons. We determined that there are some plants that live in the Arctic, but they are small and close to the ground. The students discovered that animals that live in the Arctic have a special layer of fat under their skin to keep them warm when they are in the Arctic waters. We will complete our unit by creating a polar bear craft and making a polar bear snack. After we complete our Arctic region unit we will move into learning about the tropical rainforest. The students will learn the names of some of the animals that live in the rainforest and learn about the layers of the rainforest. I want to thank everyone who helped their children bring in money for Pennies for Peace. The students filled our jar more than three quarters of the way full. They became really interested in looking at the different coins and learning the names. We have also started to talk about how much each coin is worth and will continue to work with coins. Please remember to contact me with any questions or concerns you have.
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The months feel like they are flying by. I can’t believe that it is already February. Last month the students and I studied the desert. We discussed how hot it gets there and what color clothes we should wear if we visit a desert. The students helped me determine which animals live in the desert and we learned a bit about the gila monster. This month we have finished our desert unit. The students got the opportunity to see and touch a real cactus and a snakeskin. They enjoyed seeing, touching and discussing these objects.
After Mid-Winter break, we will learn about the Arctic and tundra regions. The students will learn about the polar bear and compare what clothes we might wear in the desert vs the Arctic region. We will learn what animals can survive in those areas and what they do to survive. The students will assist me in doing more experiments focusing on cold temperatures and frozen water. After Mid-Winter break we will be starting our spring community project. This time we will be collecting money for Pennies for Peace. Pennies for Peace is an organization that collects money to help bring education to students in Central Asia. We will have a jar in our classroom to collect money in. This project will happen from February 16th to March 4th. Next month, we will have a performance on March 5th. The students have been practicing their song with Ms. Amy. As the date gets closer I will send out more information. I hope to see everyone there. I hope everyone enjoys their Mid-Winter break. I really enjoyed meeting with everyone for conferences. Please remember to contact me with any questions or concerns you have. Miss Erin Dates to Remember February 10th: Valentine’s Day Celebration February 11th and 12th: Mid-Winter Break: No School, Childcare is open February 15th: President’s Day: No School, No Childcare March 5th: Performance Welcome Back Parents!
I hope that everyone had a great vacation. The students are getting back into the routine of being in class: reconnecting with friends, doing works, and enjoying learning from the specialists. I am enjoying seeing them again and seeing how big they have gotten over the winter holidays. I have decided to change the units that we will be focusing on as we move through the rest of the year. We will focus on one biome a month and this month we will discuss the desert. The students have helped me create a “What We Know and What We Want To Know” chart about the desert. They want to learn about the animals and plants found in the desert, including: the camel, cactus, rattlesnake and Gila monster. We are also learning about temperature and will conduct experiments on heat and hot versus cold objects. It is Winter now so please make sure to send your child with gloves and a hat as needed. I will send home all your child’s extra clothes during Martin Luther King weekend so that you can make sure they still fit and are warm enough for the cold weather. Conferences are coming up the first week of February. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you and discussing how your child has progressed over the past several months. I will set up the sign-up on Bloomz in a few weeks. We will send out Mid-Year reports at the end of the month. For those of you who are returning families, these reports will be new to you. They contain a check-off that shows what your child has been working on already. We will go over them during Conferences if you have any questions. As a reminder, please email me and/or Crystal Doyle if your child is not going to be coming to school or if he or she needs to stay late for any reason. Almost all of you do this already and I thank you for it. Here are some important dates to remember for January:
As always, if you have questions or concerns, please email me. Miss Erin I can’t believe that 2015 is almost over. It is amazing how much your children have grown and changed in just the few months we have been together. I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun watching the students help cook food for our Thanksgiving feast.
Last month the students started cooking with Miss Katherine. They will continue cooking throughout the winter while the ground is too cold to do any gardening. The students have spent November learning about the differences between invertebrates and vertebrates, and conifers and deciduous trees. They have also discovered what a mammal is and learned the names of several different types of mammals. The students have also discovered how a mountain changes as you go up the sides and know that it gets colder as they go up. This month the students will be focusing on the holidays that occur during this time of year. We will be focusing on Hannukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa specifically. The students and I will discuss the origins of these holidays and some traditions that people follow. If you have any special traditions that you follow, or a different holiday, and would like to share them with the class, please let me know. Please let me know as well if your child will not be here on the 18th, the last day of school before the winter break. I would like to welcome Riley to our classroom. The kids are really enjoying getting to know her. Happy Holidays and I will see you in the New Year. Miss Erin I can’t believe that it is already November. A lot has happened in October: visits from firefighters, storytellers, Harvestfest and the kids learned about salmon. October has also been full of readers, counters, planets, pumpkins and learning about animals and where they live. Thank you so much to Heather, Catie’s mom, for helping us carve a giant pumpkin!
We are finishing up our unit on the Solar System and the students have enjoyed it. They have been singing songs about the planets and pretending to be astronauts going to the moon. Thank you so much to Monica, Adiv’s mom, for donating a solar system model to the classroom. The model included small individual planets and a sun that the students can pick up and move. It allowed the students to put the planets in order and see the difference in sizes. The students have really enjoyed using the models of the planets. In November, we will start studying the North American Biomes. We will compare and contrast 2 biomes each month. When we study each biome, we will focus on the plants, animals and people found in each biome. This month we will start with the temperate forest and mountain biomes as these are biomes that can be found in our area. Later this month is Thanksgiving and I hope to be able to have a lunch feast before the holiday. I will let you know the details as the date gets closer. Dates to Remember: November 11th: Inservice Day: No School November 25th to November 27th: Thanksgiving Holiday: No School December 1st: Kindergarten Information Night: 6pm I can’t believe that it is already October. It seems like it was just yesterday that I met your children for the first time. I have really enjoyed getting to know your children this past month and seeing their individual personalities emerge. I was glad to see everyone at conferences; to discuss how your children are settling in and share my goals for them as we move forward through the year.
September was all about getting used to the classroom and getting to know the other children. The children have been focusing on “grace and courtesy” this month. They have been working on how to walk around someone’s work, wait for their turn, and not touch another person’s work as well as use their words when asking someone to stop doing something. The children can be seen using works from all areas of the classroom and making sure they put it back correctly. We also discussed the rules of the circle and had our first fire drill. Our specialists also started in September. We have Spanish with Ms Sonia on Monday, Farming with Ms Deanna on Tuesday, Music with Ms Amy on Thursday, and Gardening with Ms Katherine on Friday. In September, we started to study the solar system. We will continue this unit in October as well. The students will learn the names and order of the planets, as well as some information about each individual planet. They will have the opportunity to make a book where they can color the planets and write the names. October 5th will be the start of sharing for our class. The sound of the week can be found on Bloomz. The first sound is a. Your child can bring an object starting with that sound to school on Monday. The object will stay in the classroom until Friday and will go home in the child’s backpack. I will give each child an opportunity during the week to show what they brought, and use our sound of the week tray if they want. Here are some dates to remember for the month of October. I hope to see everyone at Harvestfest. It sounds like it is going to be so much fun. October 16th: In-service Day: No school October 17th: Harvestfest October 19th: Parent Education night: Practical Life from 6 pm to 8 pm October 29th and October 30th: School Pictures Last month, we studied the amazing continent of Africa. We learned about the geography, the different biomes that stretch across the vast continent, and which animals live in each climate. African folktales were also a hit, and the children were eager to discuss the similarities and differences of the various stories. Several special events took place last month, as well. First, we were so excited to watch our Kindergartners join the El students in performing the play “Supper for Crow!" Next, during a visit from Mercer Slough, the children got to expand their knowledge of birds- even practicing what it is like to gather food with various types of beaks! And finally, to celebrate Earth Day, the students enjoyed a musical performance by Eric Ode.
Next month, we look forward to beginning our unit on Mammals! Planting seeds and graphing the days until germination, dissecting tulips and learning about their parts, and observing buds swell and burst into bloom as the seasons changed were just of a few of the activities that kept us busy in the Rojo classroom in March. As part of our Garden Theme, we also took an in-depth look at the Life Cycle of a Seed. Continuing our conversations about Virtues, we added Conscience and Kindness to our list. These topics have lead to some very thoughtful discussions among the students. One afternoon, a small group of students even created a game in which they challenged each other to see how many kind things they could do for their classmates! Next month, we look forward to studying the culture, geography, and wildlife of Africa. We are also excited to celebrate Earth Day with Eric Ode! February was full of explorations! In our Geology studies, the children worked with their senses and a magnifying glass to explore and group many different kinds of rocks. We studied volcanoes, watched how they erupt, mapped the major volcanoes of the world, and even built our own. The Solar System lessons were also very popular this month. At any given time during the day, at least one child could be seen working with the large felt planet map- often while singing the planet song “Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars…”. The older students have enjoyed the new reading program, and have been enthusiastically reading to teachers, parents, and each other. In addition, we also began learning about the first of the virtues we will study: Empathy. We began by defining the word, sharing examples of times we have seen or experienced empathy, and then noticing acts of empathy around us. In March, we will begin our Garden theme. We will learn about seeds, germination, parts of a flower, and animals found in the garden. As we move into Spring, we will be observing and discussing the changes that signal the shift in season. The month of January in the rojo classroom was exciting, and we are off to a great start for 2015. The children settled back into the classroom environment very well after an exciting holiday break; the beginning of the month saw many stories to tell of each student's tales from their time away.
The focus in January was Geography and Science. In Geography, the children learned about the continent of South America. The children explored the vast continent's countries, flags, food, and animals. They were particularly excited about matching the brightly colored flags to their respective countries in the flag matching exercise. The ability to use the puzzle maps really brought the flags to life for them and gave them an exciting and sensorial element to an otherwise routine geography lesson. Another big hit was the rainforest lesson; it might be a challenge for any other geography lesson to follow the excitement of this one. The Brazillian music we listened to and the reading about the Latin culture only cemented the children's interest in the beautiful continent of South America. In our Science lessons we explored, in depth, the fascinating features of our world's oceans. The biggest hit in the classroom was the parts of a fish lesson. The children really are fascinated by marine life. The song "Baby Beluga" still echoes throughout our classroom in the quietest of moments. The ability to categorize marine life and to see the children enjoying the matching lessons really made this lesson special. With 2015 off to such a strong start academically we can only be excited about the month of February. We've added special Valentine's Day themed sorting work in our Practical Life area, and we are off to a great start with the Solar System and Geology. We will be presenting an exciting lesson in fossils and their identification where children will be hands-on with a university level sampling of key fossils and rock types. We will also be introducing a Peace education curriculum in the classroom, by exploring the five virtues. February may be the shortest month on the calendar but only on days. There is no shortage of excitement this month! |
Ms. SunandaEl Salon Rojo Lead Teacher Archives
June 2018
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Montessori Children's House
5003 218th Ave. NE Redmond, WA 98053 Phone: 425-868-7805 [email protected] For Records Requests, please reach out to [email protected]. |
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